The annual “how to keep yourself healthy” post
As we are well into January and cold/flu/crud season, this is your yearly reminder of how to keep your immune system working to prevent getting sick. Most of these protocols are what I use daily as I am around a lot of people everyday.
WASH YOUR HANDS. Wash your hands before you eat, when you get home from the store/work/out of the car. I keep a foaming hand sanitizer on my desk and I sanitize before I see a patient and after I see them. I am a big fan of My Shield alcohol free hand foam, it has Zetrisil instead of alcohol in it, which prevents chapped hands. It has also been studied to be effective in certain norovirus type GI viruses as well. But at the end of the day, WASH YOUR HANDS.
Do not touch your face/nose/eyes without clean hands. These are the direct portals of entry for nearly every virus we can contract. Don’t chew your fingernails, pick your nose, etc without clean hands.
Wipe down your phone/steering wheel/gear shifter. These items harbor a ton of germs on them. Our steering wheels and phones are about as gross as a public bathroom.
Good oral/nasal hygiene. I gargle with peroxide 2x daily. There are a ton of mouthwash gargles out there, pick one you like. For nasal hygiene, I use CoFix. It is a nasal spray with Xylitol, Povidone Iodine, and Vitamin D3. I use it 3x per day and it protects for roughly 6 hours. I use it when I get to work, at lunch, and then when I get off work. On my days off, I use it if I am going into a store of some type.
Take your vitamins!! Essential winter vitamins (I take them year round and have for 4 years now) are Vitamin D3, Vitamin C, Quercetin, Bromelain, and Zinc. I have been hit/miss on the Zinc, the brand I liked (Givol) has Elderberry in it and for some reason, that gives me a headache. Even at low doses. So I use it when I feel like I am coming down with something. I firmly believe a good robust Vitamin D level serves as one of the best immune supporting agents.
If you feel like you are coming down with something……Oil of Oregano is your friend. Yes, it takes like crap. Yes, it will make you burp oregano. But it also serves as a fantastic antiviral/antibacterial. If someone in your home gets sick, start OOO right away, and the nasal spray/gargle every 4 hours. Your risk goes way down of getting sick. Pump the Vitamin C hard when you feel sick. This winter, HCQ seems to be working better than IVM for a lot of these bugs, but others report that IVM knocked it out for them. I think it depends on what virus you have.
Avoid the hospital at all costs. If you do get sick, you are gonna feel like hot garbage for a few days. Try to ride out a fever if you can, it is your body’s way of fighting off the illness. If you do have to take meds for a fever, DO NOT take Tylenol, use Motrin/Ibuprofen instead. Reasons to go to urgent care or the hospital: you cannot breathe, you are dehydrated and cannot keep fluids down, you severed a leg or arm, you have a head injury, broken bone, symptoms of a stroke or heart attack (please call 911!), etc. Do NOT go to the ER because “I feel like shit” if you have none of the other things going on I just listed. You know your body better than anyone. Use discernment when deciding if you need to escalate from home care to healthcare. These viruses this winter will have you feeling like a hot box of crap for a good 3-5 days. Days 1-3 are the worst. They always are with any illness.
One of the bugs going around is a nasty mycoplasma pneumonia. If you have shortness of breath and a horrible cough, you need a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, and you do need an antibiotic for that situation. Urgent care is equipped to handle this, not an ER visit.
If you are sick, STAY HOME!!!! I cannot emphasize this enough. I have some family members who have what I suspect is RSV or Flu after a family christmas where people showed up sick. This is not the season of giving, and sharing is not caring. If you are sick do not go expose everyone else to your cooties. We live in an age of home delivery for damn near everything, there is no reason to go out in public when you are sick. Odds are, someone else didn’t stay home when they were sick and that is why YOU caught whatever virus you have.
Here is to getting through the next 2-3 months as healthy as we can!!!
And don’t go out and get RSV, flu and Covid shots that their own data show compromise your immune system and make you more LIKLEY to get sick. Sounds obvious to us but I work with a lot of people that get these shots and spend the entire season sick.
Thanks Jennifer. Another reason to NOT use the ER: 15 million illegals use the ER as their doctor visits because it is free ... free for them, which means you pick up the tab. Even with decent insurance, expect several thousand dollar tab for using the ER. Somebody has to pay for all these new democrats.